Maintaining Control: Autonomy and Language Learning

Richard Pemberton, Sarah Toogood, and Andy Barfield

Abstract

Whereas in previous decades autonomous, self-directed, or “ independent” learning may have been assumed to be an alternative to classroom learning, the emphasis has now shifted to the point where learner autonomy, viewed as the capacity to take charge of one's own learning, is increasingly being promoted as a goal for general language education. Autonomy, as pointed out in one chapter in this book, has “become part of the current orthodoxy of language teaching and learning research and practice: an idea that researchers and teachers ignore at their peril”. This volume brings together work by t ... More

Whereas in previous decades autonomous, self-directed, or “ independent” learning may have been assumed to be an alternative to classroom learning, the emphasis has now shifted to the point where learner autonomy, viewed as the capacity to take charge of one's own learning, is increasingly being promoted as a goal for general language education. Autonomy, as pointed out in one chapter in this book, has “become part of the current orthodoxy of language teaching and learning research and practice: an idea that researchers and teachers ignore at their peril”. This volume brings together work by theorists of autonomy in language education, as well as locally situated accounts by autonomy practitioners working with secondary-level, university, or adult migrant learners, or engaged in teacher education and curriculum development. Localising autonomy in such settings, different views of autonomy emerge as social practice, much less an abstract set of discrete skills, attitudes, or behaviours to be developed, and much more a historically and socially situated process that evolves through relations among persons-in-action in specific contexts of practice. Different chapters explore learners' and teachers' voices to raise thought-provoking questions about roles, resources, and practices important to any pedagogy for autonomy.

Mike Nix, and Andy Barfield

Commentary

Richard Smith, and Ema Ushioda

End Matter

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